Raymond's Run

Toni Cade Bambara was known throughout her career for her musings on Black life in America. Like many of her contemporaries in the community of Black women writers in the 1970s and 1980s, Bambara’s stories largely centered on Black people, young and old, living in Black neighborhoods in real American towns and cities. In his review of her first short story collection, Gorilla, My Love, in 1972, New York Times Book Reviewer C. D. B. Bryan stated that Bambara “…writes about love: love for one’s family, one’s friends, one’s race, one’s neighborhood, and it is the sort of love that comes with maturity and inner peace” (Goodnough, Abby. “Toni Cade Bambara, a Writer and Documentary Maker, 56.” The New York Times. 11 Dec. 1995). In addition to these themes, Bambara also writes thoughtfully about love for oneself in “Raymond’s Run.”

“Raymond’s Run” is often told in a humorous and somewhat stream-of-consciousness narration by the protagonist Hazel Elizabeth Deborah Parker (Squeaky). A young Black girl living in Harlem, Squeaky comes from a family of mostly boys and frequently thwarts traditional gender roles and provides logical assessments of traditionally feminine activities. For example, Squeaky disparages buying a May Pole dress as wasteful since the dress will only get dirty, and she’ll have grown out of it the following year. This characterizes Squeaky as an outlier among her female peers, a trait that Bambara readdresses several times, such as when Squeaky says she doesn’t do housework like other girls. At one point, Squeaky says she believes it’s impossible for girls to really smile at each other: “Gretchen smiles, but it’s not a smile, and I’m thinking that girls never really smile at each other because they don’t know how and don’t want to know how and there’s probably no one to teach us how, cause grown-up girls don’t know either” (Paragraph 9). This suggests that Squeaky mistrusts other girls and sees herself as apart from—and possibly better than—her peers. These details lay the framework for her character development later in the story, when she considers that she and Gretchen have a lot in common and they share a genuine smile.

In the beginning of the story, Squeaky asserts that she is tough enough to take on anybody, even physically, despite being “a little girl with skinny arms and a squeaky voice” (Paragraph 2). As the story progresses, it becomes evident that Squeaky feels the need to put on a tough exterior to safeguard not only her brother, but also herself. Both characters are somewhat unusual in relation to the rest of their community. Raymond has an intellectual disability and prefers to live in the world of his imagination—an endeavor that entails pretending like he is driving a fancy stagecoach on the streets of Harlem—while Squeaky is not feminine and instead prefers to train for running competitions in her free time. With both characters living on the outskirts of an already marginalized community, Squeaky’s insistence on remaining tough and resilient suggests an unspoken fear about being rejected by her community.

Squeaky ultimately grounds herself in her one true passion: running. Unwilling to conform to social expectations and participate in the May Day dancing like the other girls, Squeaky opts to train and compete in running competitions. When she runs, Squeaky feels empowered and free, describing the feeling as a sort of delusional state: “Every time, just before I take off in a race, I always feel like I’m in a dream, the kind of dream you have when you’re sick with fever and feel all hot and weightless” (Paragraph 23). It is the only time in her life that she can escape the realities and responsibilities of her life—which include living in poverty and having to diligently care for Raymond, despite being younger—and engage with an activity that makes her feel authentic and alive. Squeaky’s commitment to pursuing her passions, despite how strange it may seem to her family and community, is more than an act of self-respect; it is an act of self-love. Throughout the story, Squeaky demonstrates not only an inherent awareness of who she is and what she wants, but also a readiness to continue cultivating her growth—via the efforts she puts into both work and play—and nurturing herself by engaging in activities that bring her joy and fulfillment.

The end of the story reveals that Squeaky’s coming-of-age narrative is less about herself and more about her perspective of others, a theme that’s hinted at with the story’s title. As an introspective story that follows Squeaky’s inner world, we see initially that she’s mostly focused on her own goals and achievements and that she’s mistrustful of other girls. By the end of the story, she develops a respect for Gretchen, who is much like herself. Likewise, her discovery that Raymond is a promising runner causes her to consider the many options for success she has compared to Raymond’s limitations, and she wonders for the first time how she might help him succeed. This moment speaks to her character growth and suggests that Squeaky’s life will take on a new, more collaborative trajectory.